Giant Panda Pair Welcomed at Indonesian Zoo With Amazing New 'Palace' Home

This is how you arrive in style.

Andrea Romano

October 02, 2017

Giant pandas Cai Tao and Hu Chun arrived at Jakarta’s international airport from China last week. The pandas are headed to Taman Safari, where they will live in a “palace”-like home that was built exclusively for them.

The highly anticipated panda couple have been transported to the Indonesian zoo in hopes that they will mate. The special enclosure and facilities cost about 60 billion rupiah ($4.5 million), Taman Safari President Tony Sumampouw told the Associated Press.

Their new living quarters resemble a three-tier temple and come equipped with an elevator, sleeping area, medical facilities and indoor and outdoor play areas, according to zoo spokesman Yulius Suprihardo. Not a bad place to live for a panda — or anyone, for that matter.

The pandas will have to live in quarantine for about a month before the public can view them.

“During this time we can only see the adorable pandas from images, videos or television. In the near future, Indonesian people can see panda directly,” Suprihardo told the AP. “And we hope they can breed here, that’s part of our goal.”

There are less than 1,900 giant pandas in their only wild habitats, in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu. Hopefully, these two pandas will help bring new life to the panda population.